Cold hard facts!

I love a good factual news story. I also enjoy News analysis, features, and editorial opinion from all over the English written world. As long as it is not tweaked into fiction by top-office intervention. I am a media junkie, having worked in film documentary production and TV news work for many years. The reason I moved? I became disillusioned about the media being used for honest information dissemination. As soon as I graduated in journalism, I got the hell out of news. I found the sanctuary of discovering and displaying artistic expression more fulfilling than being told we can't tell the cold hard facts of a real situation.

You wouldn't trust an tobacco industry report on the harmful effects of smoking;
You wouldn't trust an asbestos industry report on the harmful effects of asbestos;
You wouldn't trust a Uranium mining industry report on the effects of nuclear waste;
You wouldn't trust a diamond mining expert's views on the politics of Africa, I for one cannot understand why people ask for life-guidance from Christian priests who have meager understanding of a normal life in society and any political party that stops a scientist telling what he has found, is not to be trusted either.

The cold hard facts of Climate Change have been given to newsrooms for decades. I worked for Greenpeace as a volunteer when not working at TV networks. We were ignored. I wrote so many media releases and went on raids that exposed disgusting environmental destruction, but we were seen by the majority to be vandals ourselves.
The analogy of being the atheist in a crowd of theists is the same.

Some established media outlets are as useful to gather the cold hard facts of a situation, as a church is to gather scientific analysis on any given subject. I love the internet and its ability to let [almost] everyone have a voice. I read a lot of blogs about the atheist life. Makes me thankful that there are more people out there who wonder about what the cold hard facts are. We have to be able to ask the hard questions, voice our found facts, and uncover lies, deceit and evils, in power-halls and church halls.

As Carl Sagan said, "If we aren't able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us something is true, to be skeptical of those who are in authority, then we are up for grabs."